The floor members in a reciprocating floor conveyor ride on self-lubricating plastic slide bearings. The floor members, as they are driven, are subjected to forces which tend to push the floor members upwardly. The floor members, as they move relative to the bearings, impose forces on bearings which tend to rip the bearings off of their guide beams.
I first addressed this problem by constructing the bearings to have wings which project sideways into abutting contact with wings of adjoining bearings. This contact resulted in a mutual bracing of the bearings across the floor of the conveyor, as is described in detail in my aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,492,303.
It is desirable to be able to install the floor members on the bearings by setting each floor member down on top of its bearings and then pushing down on the floor member so that it will "snap" in place. This was possible with the type of bearing developed by Hallstrom in U.S. Pat. No. 4,184,587, issued Jan. 22, 1980, so long as the top panel of the floor member was thin enough to bend. The Hallstrom bearings are constructed from a relatively rigid material. Also, the side parts of the bearings are tight against the guide beams. There is no way for these side parts to spring inwardly. Thus, a floor member can be installed from above only if its sides are capable of springing apart.
The forces imposed by the floor members on the bearings also tend to move the bearings lengthwise along the guide beams. The Hallstrom-style bearing shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,184,587, and the prior Foster bearings attempted to lock the bearings at the intersections of the guide beams with transverse support means for the guide beams. However, under some conditions of use, the forces have been able to move the bearings past the support beams and bunch them up or force them off of the guide beams.